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Article: Edward Bellamy's Ambivalence: Can Utopia Be Urban?(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Utopian Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Society for Utopian Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction
THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER is to identify and analyze the contributions of Edward Bellamy to planning history and theory and utopian thought through a comparison of his two novels Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). It endeavors to answer the question of whether or not his perspectives are as relevant today as they were at the beginning of this century. The paper begins with a brief synopsis of Bellamy's background, continues with a review and analysis of his two utopian novels, shifts to perspectives offered by historians and political theorists and ends with this author's thoughts. It is my position that, despite the fact that the two books ...